Atherton OE, Willroth EC, Graham EK, Luo J, Mroczek DK, Lewis-Thames MW. Rural-urban differences in personality traits and well-being in adulthood.
J Pers 2024;
92:73-87. [PMID:
36725776 PMCID:
PMC10390645 DOI:
10.1111/jopy.12818]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2022] [Revised: 01/26/2023] [Accepted: 01/30/2023] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
One large focus of personality psychology is to understand the biopsychosocial factors responsible for adult personality development and well-being change. However, little is known about how macro-level contextual factors, such as rurality-urbanicity, are related to personality development and well-being change.
METHOD
The present study uses data from two large longitudinal studies of U.S. Americans (MIDUS, HRS) to examine whether there are rural-urban differences in levels and changes in the Big Five personality traits and well-being (i.e., psychological well-being, and life satisfaction) in adulthood.
RESULTS
Multilevel models showed that Americans who lived in more rural areas tended to have lower levels of openness, conscientiousness, and psychological well-being, and higher levels of neuroticism. With the exception of psychological well-being (which replicated across MIDUS and HRS), rural-urban differences in personality traits were only evident in the HRS sample. The effect of neuroticism was fully robust to the inclusion of socio-demographic and social network covariates, but other effects were partially robust (i.e., conscientiousness and openness) or were not robust at all (i.e., psychological well-being). In both samples, there were no rural-urban differences in Big Five or well-being change.
CONCLUSIONS
We discuss the implications of these findings for personality and rural health research.
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